Manufacture of thread or the like



June 3, 1941. H. B. KLINE ETAL MANUFACTURE OF THREAD OR THE LIKE Original Filed Jan. 12, 1933 2 Sheets-Sheet l lizve72$n n HAYDEN B. K LINE WALTER F. KNEBUSCH ALDEN H.BURKHOLDER By W fforney Patented June 3, 1941 MANUFACTURE OF THREAD OR THE LIKE Hayden B. Kline, Cleveland, Walter F. Knebusch,

Rocky River, and Alden H. Burkholder, Cleveland, Ohio, assignors to Industrial Rayon Corporation, Cleveland Delaware Ohio, a corporation of Original application January 12, 1938, Serial No. 651,404. Divided and this application May 21, 1938, Serial No. 209,332

8 Claims.

This invention relates to the manufacture by a continuous method of thread or the like, particularly artificial silk thread. The invention aims, among other things, to provide a process by or as a result of which, in a single machine, the thread or the like can be conveniently spun, treated, stretched, dried, and wound or otherwise gathered in finished or semi-finished package form ready for shipment, distribution, fabric manufacture, or the like. The invention further aims to provide a process making possible a closer degree of control in the manufacture of thread or the like, particularly artificial silk thread, with the consequent advantage of greater uniformity of product. Further objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear more fully hereinafter.

This application, a division of prior application Serial No. 651,404, filed January 12, 1933, for "Continuous spinning machine, is directed to a method of and means for transferring thread or the like from stage to stage in the processing sequence.

In the drawings, which represent one form of a machine to which the invention relates and in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout, Figure 1 is a front elevation of a portion of the machine; Figure 2 is a sectional elevation of part of the machine from line 2-2, Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows, other parts being omitted for simplicity of illustration; Figure 3 is a detail cross section, from line 3-3 Figure Figure 4 is a detail end elevation of one of the controlling cams; Figure 5 is a detail sectional elevation from line 5-5, Figure 2, through the end portion of one of the reels, all bars beyond the plane of section being omitted for clearness of illustration; Figure 6 is a detail end view of one of the reel bars; Figure 7 is a section taken through one of the reel bars along the line 1-1 of Figure 8; and Figure 8 is'a plan of one of said reel bars.

While the invention is capable of use in connection with the manufacture of any, synthetic thread or thread-like article and, more particularly, in connection with any process of making artificial silk thread, such as the cuprammonium, cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetate, and viscose processes, for convenience but in nosense of limitation it has been illustrated and will be described herein in connection with the viscose process of manufacturing multiple filament artificial silk thread. The purpose of the invention is, among other things, to provide a method and means by which the thread or the like may be spun in any customary manner and then passed successively to various stages for subjecting it to the necessary treatment according to the requirements of the process by which the thread or the like is being manufactured, the thread or the like finally emerging from the machine as a whole in finished or partly finished form, pref erably dry, and wound or otherwise collected upon a collecting device into suitable package form convenient for handling or shipment.

In the viscose process, generally speaking, a solution of sodium cellulose xanthate is spun into an acid coagulating bath and is collected either upon bobbins in a bobbin spinning machine or in the form of cakes in a centrifugal spinning machine, after which the thread, upon such bobbins or in such cake form, is subjected to various treatments, including washing, desulphurizing, bleaching, souring, drying and the like, although some of these steps may be omitted and other or additional method steps may be performed upon it, as will be readily understood. Any or all of these various method steps may be performed upon the thread in one and the same organized machine during continuous travel of the thread from the place of spinning to the device upon which it is finally collected. The embodiment of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings for convenience involves only a few such steps, but the latter may be varied over a wide range, as will appear.

Referring first to Figures 1 and 2, the machine comprises a suitable frame including front and rear uprights l and 2 connected by horizontal cross braces 3. The frame, and indeed the machine as a whole, is readily fabricated in the form of units of such a character that there may be attached to each other, in regular order, any number of such units, so as to multiply to any desired degree the number of threads which may be produced in a given multiple unit machine. For example, as many as one or two hundred complete sets of thread forming devices may be readily included in a single machine and be operated in unison or by the same source of power. For simplicity of illustration, but a single multiple unit has been illustrated, which unit is shown as equipped to form six threads, although the number formed in each unit may be more or less than six.

At the back of the frame are mounted the necessary devices for spinning the thread, such including the usual supply pipes, pumps, spinnerets, etc. (not shown). In placing the machine in operation, the spinnerets are immersed in the usual way beneath the surface of the acid coagulating bath 3 in trough i0. The thread A extruded from each spinneret is conducted through the coagulating bath 9 over suitable guides II and I! to the first of a series-of unitary thread-advancing reels, flve being shown in the drawings, marked respectively l3, I311, I312, Ne and l3d. Except for differencesv in the baths used therewith, the process steps in which they are employed, their peripheral speeds, and the direction of thread led thereon, these devices are alike in construction and manner of operation, so that detailed description of one will sufllce for all.

Generally speaking, the reels l3, Illa, etc., constitute devices upon which a thread may be wound continuously in generally helical form in a manner to expose all or the thread to treatment and from which the thread may be continuously unwound. In other words, the reel is preferably so constructed and operated as to enable the thread to be simultaneously wound upon it, advanced by it, and unwound from it. At the same time, it must have the capacity to hold an appreciable length of the thread. Also, successive turns of the thread should not contact with each other at any point and the thread should not be subjected to undue strain or rough handling while upon the reel. Various known thread-advancing devices are available for the purpose.

In the arrangement shown in the drawings, each reel is of generally cylindrical form. Each includes two sets of bars, Ma and lib, all of more or less rectangular cross section and parallel to each other, arranged to form the elements of a cylinder. The reel is also provided with means for operating the bars, individually and as groups, so as to cause thread wound upon it to take a substantially helical form and to cause the thread turns to progress bodily along the length of the reel to a discharge point. The reels may be long enough to take care of one thread or a plurality of threads, six threads being shown in the drawings. The particular reel illustrated is divided into six operating zones arranged end to end, on each of which the reel carries a large number of substantially helical turns of a thread, as many as from fifty to several hundred turns of thread, although for cleamess of illustration the turns are shown as more widely spaced.

Any number of said reels may be mounted in vertically spaced relation, five being shown in the drawings. The mechanism of successive reels l3, l3a, l3b, etc., is so arranged as to produce travel of threads axially along the reels in one direction on the first reel, in the opposite direction on the next reel, and so on. As shown in Figure 1, the turns of thread progress bodily from left to right on reel l3, from right to left on reel l3a, from left to right on reel I 317, and so on. The thread is led from reel to reel in such manner that the transfer of the thread from reel to reel is at the front of the machine, as shown in Figure 2. This is the working face of the machine and consequently all threads are readily accessible to the operator.

In the machine shown in the drawings, the upper reel I3 is a holding or set-up reel and the thread upon it is preferably not subjected to any bath, although it may be, if desired, according to the requirements of a particular process. Guides II and "serve a two-fold purpose, acting as guides and as wipers to turn back toward the y trough [0 any surplus bath liquor clinging to and carried up by the thread. The thread is wound upon the upper reel l3 in wet condition, so that the time necessary for the thread to pass to the lead on point and progress along reel l3 to the place of discharge therefrom may be utilized to permit the regeneration of the cellulose content 2f the viscose to approach substantial compleion.

The drawings show the second stage of the machine as utilized for a washing step, as, for example, washing with hot water to remove liquid coming from the coagulating bath or with hot water containing a small amount of a reagent adapted to neutralize remaining traces of acid from the coagulating bath. The real i311 is provided with suitable means for supplying wash liquor to the thread upon the reel, such as a supply trough mounted in the frame and from which wash liquor is delivered to the thread upon the reel either by suitable spray nozzles above it or, in the manner shown, by flowing over a horizontal weir notch H with its outlet disposed above and in substantially parallel relation to the reel axis. The wash liquor showers down upon the thread and subjects every portion of said thread to the action of the wash liquor. The wash water drains from reel i3a into a collecting trough i8 beneath it, from which it may be discharged to the sewer or recirculated to the supply trough I6.

In like manner, the thread on the third reel, i3b, may be subjected to a desulphurizing process, as by treating it with a solution of an alkali sulphide distributed from a trough l9 by a weir notch 20 and collected by a receiving trough 2|. Likewise, in the fourth stage, at reel 13c, the thread may be subjected to another washing step, with clear water which is either circulated over and over again or discharged to the sewer. Other reels may be provided for additional steps, such as a bleaching bath, another wash bath, etc.; but the reels, collecting troughs, pumps, etc., for such steps have been omitted for simplicity of illustration.

Finally, the thread is passed to the last reel 83d, where it is subjected to a drying operation. Reel l3d is enclosed within a drying chamber 24 in a hollow casing 22 of sheet metal or the like, the several threads passing to and from said reel through very narrow slots or openings 22a. In the casing 22 are finned heating coils 23, heated by steam or the like. The drying chamber 24 of said casing communicates by a passage 25 with a supply of air pre-conditioned as to moisture content. The chamber 24 also communicates by passage 21 with an outlet passage. As the air passes the heating coils 23, the temperature of the air is raised to a point at which it will leave a predetermined amount of moisture in the thread.

Figures 3, 4 and 5 illustrate in detail one of the reel mechanisms.

Each reel includes a central rotatable shaft 32 having keyed to it at each end of the reel a spider-like end head 33 having a series of radial notches 33a in which are mounted the rectangular bars Ma, Nb. Each of the end heads 33 rotates adjacent a stationary cam disc 33 rigidly mounted and supported upon one of the cross frame members 3. Each cam member 34 is provided with two cam grooves 35 and 36 and with two end face cams 31 and 38. Each bar is provided at each of its ends with an operating member 39 fastened to it as by rivets 40 and including a projection ll entering one of the grooves 35 and 33 and a shoulder 42 abutting one of the end cams 31 and 33. The arrangements at the two ends of the reel are alike in the sense that the end grooves 35 and 33 in one cam member 34 are reversed duplicates of those in the other, while the end earns 31 and 33 on the two cam members are oppositely acting or the reverse of each other. Projections 4| on the bars of one group, such as the bars I 4a, are offset from said bars radially outwardly, while projections 4| on the bars Nb of the other group are offset radially inwardly, as shown in Figure 5.

The end cams 31 and 33 produce longitudinal reciprocation of the bars [4a and Nb, whereas the groove cams 35 and 36 produce radial motion of said bars, or, in other words, motion of said bars toward and from the central axis. As the shaft 32 rotates, it carries with it the two end heads 33 and causes the bars to move around like those of a squirrel cage, and as said bars travel their projections 4| and shoulders 42 travel in the cam grooves and along the end cams and cause the bars to reciprocate back and forth endwise and also to move in and out radially. The motion of said bars is diagrammatically illustrated and greatly exaggerated in Figure 3.

Generally speaking, the two cam grooves 35 and 3B are circles slightly eccentric to each other and to the central axis, say by one-sixteenth of an inch ina seven inch diameter reel.

They are not true circles, however. Considering the full 360 of the cage, there are two diametrically opposite zones M, Figure 3, each of about 30 circumferential extent, where neighboring bars of the two groups are simultaneously in contact with the thread turns, and beyond these 30 zones M there are two very short zones N where the two sets of .bars quickly change their relative radial positions, one group of the reel bars 14a movinginwardly and the group of bars |4b moving outwardly in one zone N, with the reverse action occurring in zone N on the opposite side of the reel.

During travel through these zones M and N, the shoulders 42 are moving along fiat portions of the end cams 31 and 38, so that both groups of bars have no longitudinal motion in either direction. When the bars have changed their relative radial positions, one group moving inwardly and the other outwardly, so that the turns of the threads are supported on one group of the bars alone, then the end cams 31 and 38 begin to be curved and to produce longitudinal bar motion, that group of bars in contact with the thread turns moving forward to advance thread and that group out of contact with the thread turns moving backward to .be ready for the next advance movement, and so on. From the practical standpoint, thread advance occurs through approximately 270 of full rotation.

The end cams 31 and 38 may vary in different reels, so as to provide different rates of progression or travel of the thread turns along different reels. I

The operating mechanism may be of any suitable form, as, for example, an electric motor 50. A chain belt 54 drives shaft 32 of the lowermost reel l3d. Said shaft is provided with a pulley 55 from which a belt 56 passes to a similar pulley on the shaft 32 of the next higher reel, and the drive is then from reel to reel by successive belts 56 and proper pulleys, as shown in Figure 1. Motor 50 is also connected by a belt 62 with a horizontal ,main line shaft 63 which, by belt 64, drive a pulley 65 on the shaft without detrimental effect upon the thread. In a other words, there must be an organized timed relation between the reels of a single unit and the same timed relation should persist throughout all the units of a single machine. In addition, the reels of a given unit should bear proper relation to each other, particularly as to their relative circumferential dimensions. If it is assumed that there is no longitudinal stretch or.

shrinkage in the thread as it progresses through.

the unit, the effective circumferential dimensions of all of the reels of the given unit should be identical, and, in any event, care should be taken to see that no reel has an effective circumferential dimension less than that of its predecessor: otherwise, slack in the thread would be produced between the two reels.

The apparatus should be arranged for convenience in threading up, for which purpose successive reels are offset horizontally relative to each other, as shown in Figure 2. In, other words, while the axes of the reels are parallel to each other, each reel is just a little nearer to the front of the machine than its predecessor reel next above it. The thread is wound upon the reels so that the leading and following portions of the thread, where the thread passes from reel to reel, are tangent to the reels at the front of the machine, but are not truly vertical. As a consequence, when the machine is threaded up, the free end of the thread is manually withdrawn from the coagulating bath 9, passed through guides ll and I2 and applied to the periphery of the uppermost reel while it is rotating. The thread is then wound by the reeling operation upon said uppermost reel, the helical turns progressing bodily toward the right, Figure 1, until a predetermined discharge point is reached. In accordance with the practice of the instant invention, the reels may be provided with means to cause the leading free end of the thread to pass automatically from reel to reel, thereby to thread up the entire machine.

As previously indicated, each reel comprises a plurality of bars of generally rectangular cross section, the turns of thread being carried by the narrower sufaces of the bars comprising the generally cylindrical periphery of the reel structure. These bars, for example, may be half an inch wide. The thread A being wet during the entire time of its passage along each of the reels l3, [3a, I31) and I30 tends to cling to the surface of the bars. To cause the leading free end of the thread to leave the bar to which it adheres when the end of the operating zone is reached, each reel bar is preferably cut away at the end of each operating zone in the manner shown in Figure 7 to form a very narrow ridge portion 10 as a consequence of which each'bar presents outwardly a series of flat thread-carrying portions ll, previously referred to as operating zones, separated by relatively narrow transfer edges I0.

In operation, as each individual thread progresses along the operating zone of the first of a series of reels in a pluralityof generally helical turns, the leading end finally is advanced to the adhesion resulting from this narrowing of the thread-bearing surface of each of the bars at said transfer edge is sufllcient, particularly if the thread is of substantial mass, to cause the leading end of the thread to drop away from said bar or bars and to fall by gravity directly to the surface of a second reel disposed therebelow which, as has been explained, is offset toward the front of the machine so that positive contact of said thread with its bar members will be insured. The thread then progresses in like manner along the operating zone of said second reel and, when it reaches the adjacent transfer edge, automatically drops away and descends by gravity to a third reel and so on, the same procedure being repeated from one processing stage to the next so that complete automatic threading-up of the apparatus is assured.

Heretofore the operation. of continuous processing machines has been seriously handicapped by the difficulties involved in threading up said machines. These difiiculties include considerably increased labor costs involved in transferring each thread by hand several times on a machine which alone is capable of producing a very large number of individual threads, the inefficiency of such hand transfer methods, and the introduction of the human element. The operation is sometimes dangerous to the operator as it is very difficult to remove the thread end from a rapidly rotating element. If the operator fails to catch the thread end or if he overlooks said thread end and permits it to continue to advance beyond the usual discharge point, it may foul adjacent threads. Many other difficulties of hand transfer methods will be apparent.

In contrast, the improved practice contemplated by the instant invention tends to eliminate these difficulties. As already indicated, the employment of relatively narrow transfer edges on the bars of the reels facilitates disengaging the thread from the reel when the thread end has reached the end of the operating zone and, further, makes it less likely that the thread will travel beyond the end of its particular operating zone so as to cause it to foul adjacent turns. In addition, the arrangement of the reels insures positive contact of the disengaged thread end with the succeeding reel. The necessity for a manual operation is thus largely eliminated with the exception of the threading-up of the uppermost reel of the series.

The automatic transfer operation is particularly useful in the processing of heavy threads such as those of large denier made up of a very large number of filaments, rubber thread and the like, which, together with other thread-like: products, are comprehended by the term thread as hereinafter used. It is obvious that modifications within the scope of the appended claims will occur to those skilled in the art and that these may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is intended that the patent shall cover, by suitable expression in the appended claims, whatever features of patentable novelty reside in the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A thread-advancing reel adapted to facilitate the automatic discharge of thread therefrom having a periphery made up of a plurality of axsurface of each of which is provided with a thread-advancing portion, an adjacent thread discharge portion within the limits of which the thread-bearing surface of the bar member is characterized by a marked reduction in area of contact with the thread as compared with that of the thread-advancing portion. 1 2. A thread-advancing reel adapted to facill tate the automatic discharge of thread therefrom having a periphery made up of a plurality of axially extending bar members the thread-bearing surface of each of which is provided with a plurality of thread-advancing portions and a plurality of thread discharge portionswithin the limits of each of which the thread-bearing surface of the bar member is characterized by a marked reductionin area of contact with the thread as compared with that of the thread-advancing portion, the number of thread discharge portions being equal to the number of threads being advanced on said reel.

3. A thread-advancing reel adapted to facilitate the automatic discharge of thread therefrom having a periphery-made up of a vplurality of axially extending bar members the thread-bearing surface of each of which is provided with a plurality of thread-advancing portions and an equal number of thread discharge portions, said thread-advancing and thread discharge portions being alternately disposed lengthwise of the glread-bearing surface of each of said bar mem- 4. The method of automatically transferring wet thread from a unitary thread-advancing reel over the periphery of which the thread is allowed to advance in generally helical turns comprising reducing the adhesion between the leading end of the thread and the periphery of the reel at a time when the leading end of the thread is still in contact with the periphery of the reel, the amount of such reduction being suflicient to enable the leading end of the thread to disengage itself by gravity from the periphery of the reel.

5. The method of automatically transferring wet thread from a unitary thread-advancing reel over the periphery of which the thread is allowed to advance in generally helical turns comprising reducing the amount of contact between the leading end of the thread and the periphery of the reel at a time when the leading end of the thread is still in contact with the periphery of the reel, the amount of such reduction being sufficient to enable the leading end of the thread to disengage itself by gravity from the periphery of the reel.

6. The method of automatically transferring wet thread from a unitary thread-advancing reel over the periphery of which the thread is allowed to advance in generally helical turns comprising reducing to a minimum the area of contact between the leading end of the thread and the periphery of the reel over a zone within which the leading end of the thread is still in contact with the periphery of the reel, whereby the leading end of the thread is enabled to disengage itself by gravity from the periphery of the reel.

'7. A thread-advancing reel having a periphery made up of a plurality of axially extending bar members and, associated therwith,- means for thread-advancing portion and, distinct from said effecting automatic transfer of the leading end of the thread from the periphery of said thread-advancing reel, said means comprising a portion on the thread-bearing surface of each of said bar members within the limits of which said surface is characterized by a marked reduction in area of contact with the thread.

8. A thread-advancing reel the periphery of surface of the bar member is characterized by a reduction in area of contact with the thread, such reduction being from a surface to a line.

HAYDEN B. KLINE. WALTER F. KNEBUSCH. ALDEN H. BURKHOLDER. 

